Dopler

I just read some of the posts about the spider bull. I hope that rifle huntersrealize that killing a Bull elk in open country with a rifle is like a turkey shoot, like shootingfish in a barrel. The Bull elk bugles, you hear it a half mile away and you walk up to it and shoot it at 300yards.Rifle hunting for elk is like a gimme in golf. I could honestly train my 6 year old neice tosucessfully undertake such an endeavor.

Now Chuck Adams is a real hunter,takingconsistant huge bull elk with archery is a real challenge and I take my hat off to the man.

As was the case with the Spider Bull for some 70 year old guy who spends $250K (with tags, guide costs, etc.)to harvest ahuge bull is no feat. I'm not jealous of him though, I'm happy for him and I'm happy that he had the kind of money to spend to make this happen, it's ultimately good for the sport but's it's nothing to brag about. Having 6 personal guides locatethe bigbull (which was the only challenge)and then drive you up to it and do everything but pull the trigger is not that hard.

Rifle hunting for sheep and woodlanddeer can bea challenge but rutting Bull Elk in open country is only a challenge if you pick up your archery equipment so pick up your bow and give these majestic elk an even playing field!

gbrownlee

So you think ol chuck Adams finds all these 390+" elk all on his own, without the help of 5 or 6 guides? Its easier with a rifle yes, but Chuck Adams pays a pretty penny for people to find his bulls for him, just as this man did.

Dopler

Yes chuck Adams uses guides but he has one guide. Also, to compare the challenge of rifle hunting to the challenge of bow hunting for elk should not even be utterred or ponderedin the same sentence. One of these hunting stylescould be undertaken by a little girl wearing a pink dress (an insulated pink dress in cold weather)and the other takes thea seasoned and skilled hunter to accomplish, I'll let you figure out which is which ;-)

BareBack Jack

My hat gose off to elknut1,not only with archery but with traditional.
BBJ

EKM

Dop,

I would generally agree that successful archery hunters are better hunters than rifle elk hunters, they do have (elk) rut behavior in their favor which is no small thing.

The belief that rifle elk seasons occur in the "love blind" rut, I believe is largely in error and appears to be an assumption on your part, as isthe ready availability of 300 yard sight horizons.

Per the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the success rate for rifle elk hunters in Colorado is about 20%.
Out of the remaining 80% I haven't seen any pink dresses.

The idea that deer hunting is more of a challenge, is not one that I have experienced. Bambi popping is generallyeasy enoughthat I haven't bothered with it since 1987.

Something in your comments just don't square.

RedRiverHntr

I take offense to what Dopler says....
all of my pink dresses are in "blaze" with lines to allow some camo aspects!!!

Seriously, I will admit that on the surface rifle hunting might appear easier, and surely there is the exception now and then that does prove it be when one gets really, really lucky. By and large, not so much. I guess it mostly depend on the "where" as much as anything else. If we were talking Pronghorns, then I am 100% with ya!

I love it when someone feels it justify's and validates their particular style by deriding and degrading someone else's!

I have done both types of elk hunts. Each affords me satisfaction in differing ways. To say that one is easier over the other, not so much.

Or put another way.....
Dope, you should wear your granny's panties for calling something "fair" or even "hunting" for that matter, when all you have to do is plop yourself down in the middle of nowhere and start blowing your horn and then trying not to get run over by the stampede!!! See my point? Not quite that easy and neither is rifle hunting. The places we hunt, one has to get about the same distance regardless of the weapon as the public land hunt makes them wary and you got to go in to where they live. And with rifle in hand you don't get the benefit of blowing your tricycle horn and him honking back, even though he didn't want to and even in his tiny brain, he knew it was a bad idea....and yet he still blurted out because it's his nature. Nope, by then he has heard every thing from the seasoned caller to the greenhorn trumpet and he just stays quiet and stays hidden.

WhileI do admire your 'nads for trying to even start that arguement,you might want to re-consider. But then again this is America and bygawd you got just as much right to your opinion as the next guy no matter how wrong or uninformed you may be! So go ahead....let'er rip some more. I'm listening!

CAelknuts

Dopler, it isn't quite as easy as you paint it to be. As EKM mentioned, Colorado estimates a 20% or so success rate, which probably is only for their general hunts. No matter, it is certainly not as easy as you are trying to state.It does look like they got this bull out in rolling open country, and Monroe has a good amount of that country up on top. It also has many tens of thousands of acres of steeper country that is nearly all solid timber. It is not as easy to hunt as someone might think, just from looking at the picture where they eventually killed this bull. A lot of the unit is very thick timber, and a lot of it is very steep country. Just like most other places that elk habitate.

Have you done a lot of elk hunting yourself? Or are you basing your comments on impressions you have of what it must be like? I'm just curious how you've come to your beliefs.

Dopler

Some of you have picked up on my commentary as partly tongue and cheek; however, I stand by my base argument. I have done a lot of elk hunting.On September 18 of this year, I harvested a small 6x6 with the bow in Wyoming and I have harvested several others in years past. I refuse to hunt elk with a rifle, I consider it fartoo easy and I have far too much respect for elk not give them a chance when manengages a mature bull elk in the hunt.I realize that Colorado is only 20% success but Colorado has a few disadvantages. 1. Large areas of thick dark timber, you will see that in my post I specifically mentioned OPEN COUNTRYrifle elk huntingas the easy prey. 2. Colorado hasa buy over thecounter tag situation sounless you're on a big private ranch, it's slim pickings in Colorado for the most part unless you've found a rare honey hole. (If you have, keep it to yourself as they are rare!)[/align][/align]The place I went this year was a private ranch thathas about a 15% successrate with bow and it has a 100% success rate with rifle. Theguide who runs the land for rifle season told me himself that he feels bad for the elk as they have no chance whatsoever in rifle season. Thesimple fact that this magnificent animal buglesfor thefirst two weeks of rifle compounded with the fact that the animalhas poor long range vision and cannot rely on its keen nose at these rangesmakes it a very easy BIGtarget.I'm notslamming elkrifle hunters, if you're out for the meat, by all means blaze away, I just thinka bull elk taken with a rifle is an easy trophy to take from any quality elkstate that has open country and especially if the statehas drawn tags likeNM, WY, AZ, etc. I'm a hunting advocate but I'm a bigger archery advocate andthis is just my opinion from where I sit. Besides all of this, I don't look good in pink ;-) [/align]

CAelknuts

Glad to see that you at least had the tip of your tongue in your cheek. I'll partially agree with you, rifle elk hunting during the rut can be easy. However, it isn't necessarily so. I've been on a tough September rifle elk hunt on a limited unit. It was a huge surprise, as we did expect to see a lot of bulls. Hot weather, a full moon and poor rut turned it into a tough hunt where I shot a raghorn on the 4th day, the only branch antlered bull I saw, and was darn happy to get him. I've also had some easy bow hunts, though they were still much tougher than they'd have been with a rifle. When you talk about easy rifle elk hunting, the problem I have is that my mind keeps wandering back to times with knee deep snow, temperatures below zero, wind and not many elk. Rifle hunting isn't always a piece of cake, even though it can be at times.

muley699

I too, partly agree with Dopler, I would not support Montana opening up rifle season during the rut, it woould be too easy. However, after the rut, when the big bulls retreat to the deep dark forest and upper reaches of their range, just getting to them can be a difficult operation. personally, i think the whole 'spider bull" scenerio was rather disgusting, just my 2 cents, worth price charged.